How Big Is It?
The illustration at right is a little misleading. The black and white images are both smaller than shown, and are on the sides of the center acrylic painting. I made them like this for the website so you could see them better. The large coloured center portrait is 213cm x 167cm (7ft x 5ft 6in) and the 2 tiny black and white portraits, one each side, are only 29cm x 27cm (about 11in x 10in).


What Is It Made Of?
The center painting is acrylic on canvas, the side paintings are acrylic on panel. The paint is thickened with calcite or transparentised with a mixture of matt mediums and acrylic binder. The 'gold' is micaceous.


What Does It Depict?
On the left the small portrait is of Leo Sayer making a funny face. To the right is Leo as a 12 year old boy. See Origins. The center panel shows a portrait of Leo Sayer in a gold frame hanging on a wall with a spotlight on it. On the floor, propped against the wall is a Pierrot marionette. See Pierrot


What Does It All Mean?
The Leo Sayer portrait in the gold frame is the real Leo Sayer of today, he is reflective and happy with life. The rich acrylic colours are very symbolic There is the pink of the English rose. It represents his origins. Over his shoulder is the turquoise of the Australian summer ocean. It represents his new home. On his head is the gold of stardom. The colours are the theatrical colours of the stage where his life's work comes to fruition.

To the sides are Leo with the mask of the performer, and on the other side the young determined Leo yet to take on the world. In black and white they have the qualities of photographs, reflections of the real world but also that little bit removed. They are voices in the head.

On the floor is Pierrot. He represents all the shackles of  the pop world that both put Leo before the world in whatever mask was necessary, and also controlled  his creative output like some puppet. The puppet has been abandoned now, at the edge of the shadows, no longer in the center of the light, that place is taken now by that self assured man in the golden portrait.



Digital Imagery:
Voice In My Head, a triple portrait of Leo Sayer. Digital images by Tony Johansen.